Hammer on Sword: A Kirito x Lisbeth Fanfiction
by Lagnif
Summary: After nearly being killed, Kirito struggles to decide whether love is worth it or not. Meanwhile, Lisbeth is trying to ignore her feelings to protect Kirito and Asuna's relationship.
1. Prologue: Guilt

A/N: Hello ! This work is my first step into the world of fanfics, and I hope you all will enjoy reading it as much as I did writing. This first chapter is basically just my reworking of the end of episode seven, but I promise that that's not what the whole story will be like. It will break from the canon probably halfway through next chapter. Also, I know that this isn't very long, I just wanted the first chapter to be short and sweet, and help me determine how I want to do this. Subsequent chapters will be longer.

Please read and review, just keep in mind that this is my first fanfic, so I can't promise anything about the quality of the writing. I'm also not sure how beta-ing works on here, so...

Anyways, feel free to leave feedback and happy reading!

DISCLAIMER: As much as I wish I owned everything SAO-related, I don't. No copyright infringement is intended in the writing of this story.

-oOo-

It was cold.

The sun was just dipping below the horizon, and the last few rays of light lit up my surroundings in a beautiful golden haze. Not that I cared. A single tear traced its way down my cheek, and I watched it fall onto my crossed arms. Why was I crying? Why should I care so much about this? About him?

I knew he was there. I had heard his footsteps approaching only a few seconds ago, but I didn't look up. I couldn't. I was afraid, afraid of what would happen if I looked into his face, if I...

No. I couldn't accept those feelings. I couldn't even think about them. He was gone; I couldn't. Not without hurting my best friend. I wouldn't let myself.

"Lisbeth."

Why couldn't he just leave? Why did he have to be such an _idiot!_ I forced myself to my feet.

"You can't be here right now." I turned around, trying to stop the tears. "Just a little longer, and I would've gone back to being my usual cheerful self..." No use. I wiped my sleeve across my eyes.

"Liz..."

"How'd you know I was here?"

He turned, and I looked in the direction he was pointing. The bell tower. "I went up there, so I could scan the whole town for you."

I couldn't help but smile. "You always do the craziest things." I stopped and turned away, berating myself for giving in to my emotions. "Sorry..." I managed to say, "I'm fine. I think I'm not used to adventures, and it just shook me up... So please... forget everything I said." I dropped to my knees and covered my face, desperate to stop him from seeing me. Not like this.

"I wanted to thank you." I looked up. What did he say? "I've always," he continued, "I've honestly always thought it would be better to die than to survive alone." He looked away, as if...

I stood up. "Kirito?"

"But when we fell in that hole, I was glad we both made it." There it was, that smile. The smile that covered his whole stupid face and made you just want to jump him. "I was able to think that everyone is living as best they can. So, thank you, Liz."

Everyone is living as best they can. In other words, he wanted to remain like this. He wanted us to remain like this. Had he even realized? Could he really be that thick? I lowered my head. "Same here..." No, I had to say something, I just had to. I couldn't leave these feelings trapped inside me. "I was also looking for something, something real in this world. For me... it was the warmth of your hand." I took a deep breath, steadying myself. "Tell Asuna what you just told me." I turned away again, the urge to cry almost overwhelming.

"Liz...-"

"I'm fine!" I looked up. The sky really was beautiful, even if it was artificially generated. "Only, this warmth will linger for a little while. Therefore, please... end this world." I couldn't stop the tears now. "Until then, I'll keep working."

"I promise." The voice from behind me was gentle and reassuring. I wiped my face again.

"If you need your equipment repaired, come by anytime." I was okay, I could do this. "Sure," his voice came again. I turned back around. "You'll always be welcome at Lisbeth's Smith Shop!"

-oOo-

A/N: Thanks for reading! Again, this chapter's pretty short, the next ones will be longer. I will aim to try to publish chapters once a week, but I've never done this before, so I have no idea how long it actually takes... Anyways, see you all later!

Lagnif, aka Voxzorz


	2. Chapter 1: Indecision

A/N: Hello again! If you're here, then I want to thank you for being interested enough in my story to read the second chapter. This is where we'll break from the canon and start on original content! Yay! To be honest, I'm kinda worried that my first chapter just being a redo of episode seven is causing less people to read it...

Second point of business: I know it's probably overdone, but I really like stories where the point of view switches between the main characters, so that's what I'm going to do for this (with Kirito and Liz at least, may or may not include Asuna... we'll have to see).

Anyways, on to the story!

-oOo-

**CHAPTER 1: Indecision**

"_GUAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!"_

Ugh, his breath was awful. I shook my head and focused on the massive silver blade flashing towards me. I was probably screwed, no one had ever taken on a boss fight single-handed. Not even me.

I crossed my two swords in front of myself in an attempt to block his attack, but even just the force of the attack was enough. My HP bar dropped a noticeable amount as I staggered backwards. This wasn't working; I had to go in the offensive.

"Starburst... STREAM!"

My right arm swung, Elucidator biting into the demon's side. Continuing the motion, my left hand brought Dark Repulser to meet it as well. Right again. Then left. Not fast enough. Right. Left. Right. Left. Black. Blue. More, faster, FASTER! I put everything into it, my entire being. I was taking hits too, even my continuous attacks weren't enough to prevent that.

Why... won't you... just... DIE!

Fifteen hits. One more thrust and the combo was over. My hand sped towards him, and I saw his blade rushing to me at the same time. I felt my sword hit my opponent's leg, and then...

CONGRATULATIONS! The word in front of me meant something, but I somehow couldn't recognize what it was.

"Is it... over?" I finally asked, before collapsing onto the ground.

-oOo-

"Kirito-kun! Kirito-kun!"

I opened my eyes slightly. I could see something... blue hair? Could it be...? No, it was Asuna, bent over me, holding my shoulders and wearing a terrified expression. I sat up, rubbing my head.

"How long was I out?"

"Only a few seconds." Asuna was crying now. "Stupid! That was crazy!" She jumped at me and hugged me tightly. Why was she hugging me? Wait, could it be that she... no, it was impossible. Not me. I had to get out of this situation and clear my head.

"Um, Asuna? I'm going to be okay..."

She pulled away slightly and looked at me. "Yeah, I know."

"Can I, you know, stand up? I need to heal..." She got up and pulled me to my feet, but didn't let go. I opened my storage and activated a healing crystal, watching with relief as colour returned to my health bar.

Klein and the others were still standing there watching us. Eventually he took a step towards me. "Corvatz and two others were killed."

I grimaced. Of course there would be casualties, they ran in completely unprepared, but the loss still shook me. "We haven't lost anyone to a boss fight since floor sixty-seven."

Klein's face looked the same as I felt. "Corvatz was a dumbass, thinking he could take that thing." He stopped, and his expression changed. "Anyway, what was that?!"

And here we go. The secret I had carefully guarded for months. While the group stood dumbfounded, I explained how six months ago I had discovered a new skill in my menu, nestled casually between "One-handed Sword" and "Thrown Sword." An extra skill – Dual Wielding.

"So that's how it is. If I knew how I got it, I'd tell you, but I'm just as confused as you about that," I finished.

"You know, a lot of people would be really envious. Especially because..." Klein glanced at Asuna, who was still clinging to me, her face buried in my shoulder. "Well, suffering builds character, young man."

Oh great. Now I was going to have to deal with this misunderstanding before it got out of hand. Not now though, I had to figure out my own feelings first.

"We're going ahead to activate the warp gate." Klein started walking to the far end of the room. "You coming?"

"Yeah, just give me a second," I called back, before glancing at the redhead STILL clutching my arm. "You're going to have to let go eventually," I said to her gently.

Asuna let go suddenly, and I saw her face go red. "I'm sorry..."

I smiled and patted her head. "Come on, let's go see."

She looked up and smiled back. "Yes, let's." No one could resist stepping onto the next floor for the first time. I myself was pretty tired, and for a second had considered just going home, but quickly dismissed the thought. It would be worth it.

-oOo-

The scenery wasn't anything special. Some floors were exceptionally spectacular and beautiful, like the crystal mountains on floor 43, or floor 18's glowing lake. There were others which were less appealing, like the cold city of Grandzam where the KoB was based, or floor 32. People didn't talk about floor 32...

Ignoring that unpleasant thought, I returned my attention to the sights around me. The town we had appeared in was, like the floor itself, pretty average. It was getting late, and I could see NPCs starting to pack up their wares, and the occasional empty store waiting for some lucky business owner with enough col to open up shop on the new frontier.

"Aww, come on..." I sighed and turned around. Klein was looking unusually disappointed for someone who was one of the first humans to ever walk around this place.

"And what's your problem?" Asuna was looking equally displeased, but not, it would seem, with the view.

"Well it's the seventy-fifth floor. Ya know, we're three quarters done" My spiky-haired friend glanced around, waiting for someone to acknowledge how incredibly intelligent he was for making that observation.

I wished he would just get to the point. "And? So what?"

"I just thought it would be more... awesome?"

"Moron." Asuna rolled her eyes and started off away from the group.

"Hey! Wait up!" I ran after her. "Where are you off to?"

"Hmm?" She thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "Nowhere in particular. Want to come?"

"Sure." I looked behind us and saw the others starting towards us. I grinned. "Think we can lose them?"

Asuna seemed confused for a second, then feigned insult. "You mean to say you think I can't outrun _them?_" Then her face lightened. "Unless you mean to say that you can't."

"Oh, I've been beating that idiot at everything since this game started."

"That wasn't very nice!" I turned; Klein was closer than I thought he had been. I waved to him affectionately. "Ready?"

"You bet," Asuna replied. "Aaaaannnd... NOW!"

I am quite fast. With the exception of strength, agility was my highest score by a long shot, and I was one of the top players in the game. This added up to an impressively high movement speed.

So when I say that I was barely able to keep up with Asuna, I want you you to get my full meaning. She is really, REALLY fast. I knew that she was nicknamed "The Flash" for a reason, but seriously, this was even beyond what I had expected.

We ran for maybe five minutes, and in that time we had gotten a significant distance from the town's edge and out into the gently rolling hills of the floor itself. We were both starting to run out of steam at this point, so I figured it was time for a break.

I stopped and bent over, putting my hands on my knees. "Don't you think we're far enough by now?" I asked. Asuna, who hadn't noticed I wasn't still running, turned and walked back to me.

"Can't keep up?" she teased.

I punched her playfully in the shoulder. "Oh, don't pretend you're not tired too."

"Okay, maybe a little." She sat down on the grass, then pointed at me with a stern expression on her face. "But just a little."

"Yes, ma'am." I sat down next to her, then let my body fall back onto the ground. It was springy and comfortable, and the grass smelled nice. My eyes wandered around for a few seconds before settling on Asuna.

She was looking up at the sky. "Hey Kirito," she said, pointing up at something flying above us. "What do you think that is?"

I sat up and shrugged. "I have no idea. My guess is that we'll find out for ourselves sooner or later. Hopefully later."

Asuna smiled at me, then her expression changed into something I couldn't recognize. "Hey, um, Kirito..."

Oh crap. Was she actually going to confess? To me? No, it couldn't happen. But it _was_. Wait, just back up a second, let's stop her here and get some more time to think. Yeah, okay, that's good.

"Um Asuna? You know, I don't know that this is the best thing right now. I mean, we're both... uhh... we're both in the clearing group and we need to focus on getting out of here, right? And anyways, I want some more time to think about it, okay?"

Asuna gave me a blank stare. "Excuse me? What are you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I was going to say that you have grass all over your head and you look like an idiot..."

Ah. I see. Not good.

"Anyways, your turn. What were you going on about?" she continued.

"Nothing really. Just, umm... yeah, nothing."

Asuna looked at me carefully. "Are you sure? You made it sound like I was about to confess to you or something."

At first I thought I was out of danger, but as we headed back to the town and apologized to Klein and the others for abandoning them, I remembered something.

When Asuna had said that, she had looked away from me. And she was blushing.

-oOo-

I lay in my bed, looking up at the ceiling. Why was this happening? First Lisbeth, now Asuna, I wasn't ready for this.

I swung my legs off the mattress and stood up. Opening the menu, I equipped my gear and headed out to the fields for some fresh air.

I was there for maybe an hour. It was actually pretty relaxing, almost like meditating, ignoring everything but the swinging of my sword. It gave me time to think about _that_.

The monster I was currently fighting looked like some sort of half-frog, half-ant thing with a bit of lizard thrown in for effect. I blocked its swing and counterattacked with a quick thrust. As I saw the last few points of its health vanish, I remembered the same sight from a year ago. A small empty rectangle, that burst of light, and four words. _Thank you. I'm sorry._

I watched the blue shards of light fade into nothingness. No. This game, this life is too dangerous. In a second, any one of us could be injured or even killed. How could you risk loving someone when you could lose them in an instant? No, it wasn't going to happen. Even if I did have feelings for her, I couldn't let myself realize them. I just had to continue on like this, alone. It was the best way.

-oOo-

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I know it's later than I said, I've been kind of busy recently. Please let me know what you thought, I'll try to be on time with the next update.

See you next time!


	3. Chapter 2: Unfortunate Circumstances

Hello to all my readers! I'm really, really sorry that this update took so long, I've been sick, and therefore sleeping a lot, and I had a bunch of stuff to deal with so... (plus these take longer to write than I thought).

I promise I'll be better with future chapters... Please forgive me (q_q)

* * *

I did quite like Silica, but she could be really irritating at times. Times like now.

"Please, Kirito-kun... We won't be a bother, I promise!" She was practically bouncing up and down.

"It's not that I'm concerned about," the swordsman replied, "You can't come up to the front lines, it's way too dangerous."

"Not the top, just a few floors higher. Besides, I'm sure you can protect us."

She should just leave it already. "Come on, Silica-chan, stop pestering him," I told her.

"But he said he would take me yesterday..." Her face dropped in disappointment.

"He did not! Stop making things up."

"Oh, you're no fun."

I was getting angry now. "It's not a joking matter! You could die!"

"Okay! Okay! I'll take you, just stop arguing already," Kirito jutted in.

"See, he's really just a big softie," Silica continued. "Hey, can Liz-neesan come too?"

He sighed. "Yeah sure, whatever. Bring the whole town while you're at it..."

I was a little surprised that Silica had invited me, but really I should have guessed this would happen. Ever since she found out I had a crush on Kirito she had become obsessed with the subject. I occasionally even considered actually going out with him just so she would drop it.

"So, where and when are we meeting you then?" I asked.

"Uhh, tomorrow morning on floor 52?" He stopped and thought for a second. "No, 51..."

That little voice spoke up again. "Why? What's wrong with floor 52?"

"Most of the mobs on floor 52 are pretty easy, but it's not hard to get separated, so if we did 51 it would be easier to stick together," I replied.

Kirito gave me a curious look. "I'm surprised you know that, Liz."

"What, you think I spend every day holed up in my shop? I do have _some_ free time, you know." Actually, the only reason I knew was because there was an item that I had teamed up with a group of other smiths to get on that floor, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

He shrugged. "I just didn't think..."

"What? You didn't think what?"

"Nothing," he responded sheepishly.

Silica was practically bouncing up and down. "So? What are we going to be doing? Where are we going? Is it pretty? Can we get food? I hope there's – mhf!"

I put my hand over her mouth and started pulling her away. "Come on Silica, let's leave him alone now..."

Kirito smiled at us and waved. "See you tomorrow then," he called out as he walked off.

I looked down at Silica as she managed to struggle out of my arms. "Geez Liz, that was mean..."

I crossed my arms and blew a strand of hair out of my face. "You were bothering him."

"But he agreed"

"Only because you pushed him! You need to be less..." I trailed off, looking for a word to describe my friend.

"Less what?"

"Annoying."

Silica turned her back to me. "You're just frustrated because he doesn't like you."

I felt my cheeks heating up. "I am not!"

"Sure you are." She looked back and grinned. "And now you're blushing."

I didn't want to deal with her anymore. Besides, I had work to do. "I'm going home."

"See you tomorrow!" She gave me a wave which would normally be cute, but right now was just irksome. I stormed off angrily.

She was right though, I _was_ frustrated, but more with myself than with Kirito.

_The next morning._

"Hey, Kirito!"

The little girl skipped ahead of me towards the boy leaned against a pillar, her chestnut twintails bouncing up and down as she ran across the pavement of the teleport platform.

He turned and saw us. "Morning Silica. Liz," he said, waving to us as we approached.

"Sorry we're late," I said apologetically. As excited as we both were, Silica had slept in, and I had wanted to look over my gear before we left. We had managed to make the generally accepted move-out time of approximately 9:30, but I knew that Kirito liked to be out earlier.

Kirito, as always, seemed to know immediately what I was thinking about. "It's okay Liz, where we're headed doesn't have any uncommon monsters, and the drop rates aren't very good either. We won't have much in the way of competition." He looked around; the small crowd that always appeared around the teleport gate had started to disperse. "That said, we should get going."

"Yay!" Silica punched the air. "Let's go!"

We started off into the fields surrounding the gate, me and Kirito trailing a little behind the ever-energetic Silica. Floor 51 was one of your standard, mostly flat, semi-forested areas. It was very open, so as long as you stayed out of the woods, you could see mobs coming a mile away. Perfect for what we were doing.

"Hey, guys," Silica said, turning back to us. "Don't we need a party name, or something?"

"How about the _Doomed to Fail Group_?" I proposed, only half joking.

"I think we'd be better off going with something more along the lines of _Constantly Irritated Bunch_." Kirito replied.

"Aww, come on, be serious... we need to think of something."

After ten minutes of alternating thoughtful silence and bothering the girl, who I had started to see as our mascot, Kirito had suggested _The Mediocre Mates_, and since it was better than anything the two of us could come up with, so our makeshift party was officially created.

Said party's first encounter came in the form of possibly the most anticlimactic monster in the game – a giant mole. Most people thought they were intended to be relatively difficult to kill, because they could burrow underground and pop up right underneath you, but once the clearers discovered a glitch which made it completely unable to move, it became the single most farmed mob in the game in under a day. It did at least make up for the mind-numbingly boring combat by dropping crafting materials, although the sheer number of them fought meant that moleskin was dirt cheap.

Just as we finished dividing up the drops, I heard a tearing sound, and turned to see a second mole crawling out of the ground. I hefted my mace and got into position beside Kirito.

"Oh great, here we go again..."

* * *

"Uwaaaghh, I'm tired." Silica sat down and stretched her arms, before closing her eyes and falling back onto the ground. "I didn't realize that fighting was this much work..."

"Oh, it's not that bad," I said. Actually, I was exhausted too, and how Kirito seemed to be fine even after several hours was a mystery to me. He was still just standing there holding his two swords, looking around to see if there were any more monsters near us. How the hell could he not be tired yet?

I sat down next to Silica and ruffled her hair gently. She smiled and shuffled closer to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. "I'm just going to go to sleep now, okay?"

"Hey!" I laughed and shook her shoulder. "You can't sleep here, doofus. Go home already."

She slowly stood up and looked around sheepishly. Her hair was all messed up from rolling around, so I quickly tidied it up.

"Thanks Liz!" she said, and yawned widely.

Kirito moved to leave. "You want us to walk you back?"

"Naw, I'll be fine," the girl responded, "it's only like five minutes, and I can take care of myself well enough."

Kirito looked confused. "Then why did you need me to come with you then?"

"Cause I wanted to spend the day with you two, of course!" She smiled sweetly, then turned away. "Anyways, I'll be going then. See you guys!" She skipped off down the path, surprisingly energetic for someone who had just been complaining about being tired a few minutes ago. After a bit she turned back and waved, before continuing on her way.

I kept sitting for a little while, but soon decided to get Mr Bonehead's attention. "Hey, are we just going to stay here for the rest of the day, or do you want to do something?"

He looked at me and shrugged. "I guess this is kind of a waste of time. What do you want to do?"

"Well, we could go get something to eat." I stood up and nodded in the direction Silica had left.

Kirito got to his feet as well and started back to the platform. "That sounds good, I know a pretty good place, and the guy there likes me, so we should get a pretty good price too."

"Awesome. I haven't had much business the last few days, so I'm kinda broke..."

We continued walking down the dirt path, which passed along the edge of a thick pine forest. I was actually pretty excited; I hadn't gotten to spend time alone with Kirito for a long time. Maybe this would lead to – nononononono! I clamped my eyes shut and shook my head, trying to expel the thought from it. I had decided, hadn't I? I couldn't take him from Asuna...

Kirito noticed what I was doing and looked over at me. "Are you alright?"

Damn it, stop being nice to me! I looked up and smiled at him. "Yep, what would I have to be upset about? I'm absolutely fine!" Yeah, as if. I felt a sudden urge to grab him, to pull him to me and – and what? Cry into his shoulder? No way, I was Lisbeth, the smith. I was stronger than this.

I sped up, pulling ahead of him. "Come on, it's starting to get dark. We don't want to get caught out here at night."

I heard him following, but kept my eyes focused on the teleport gate just coming into view ahead of us. I wouldn't look back. Although, maybe if I had, I would have seen the figure walking through the trees, silently matching our pace.

* * *

Again, I am so sorry to all of you who waited so long for this chapter, I promise to do better, really... Also, I'm still working on parts of the story, so if anyone has suggestions, let me know!


	4. Chapter 3: Curious Developments

Ok, to all of you who have been patiently waiting for this for far, far too long... I'm sorry. I have no excuses, no tragic tale of woe to give you some reason to forgive me... I just lost interest. Be as mad as you want, I probably deserve it. Anyways, a bunch of you said my work was good, and that made me feel really bad for stopping this halfway through, so here you go! The long-awaited third chapter! Once again, I'm super sorry for making you all wait so long, and I hope you're still willing to read my stuff. Enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Curious Developments**

"Urgggg." I groaned as the first rays of the rising sun hit my eyelids. Adjusting my black hair so it would offer some protection from the light, I tried to fall back asleep. No good; I was awake now, I'd have to deal with it.

I sat up and stretched, wishing I could return to the heaven that was my bed. I have to say, if there's one thing I like about Sword Art Online, it's sleeping. I had remembered seeing somewhere, in an article I read before the beta test began, that the game developers had experienced some difficulty replicating the feeling of sleep in the game. Of course, I didn't pay it much attention at the time. After all, who would sleep inside a video game? But now, boy am I glad for technical issues. While laying down on something feels exactly the same as you would expect it to, once you drift off, you start to feel weightless... it's wonderful. Almost like lying on a cloud. In fact, it also meant I didn't have to spend much on a good quality bed, because they all feel the same. Hooray for cheap stuff!

But, now that I was up, there was nothing for it but to greet the day with some small amount of enthusiasm. I got out of bed, dressed quickly, and opened my door to the usual sound of... nothing. That was odd, usually people were beginning to fill the street by this time, doing shopping or heading out to kill things. Of course, I would normally have been long gone by now, but with everything going on, I had decided to take a day off.

Making my way down the unusually empty street, I glanced around to see where everyone was, until I decided I was hungry. I stopped in front of an unobtrusive-looking shop and opened the door. Inside was a welcome sight; the usual dimly lit interior of Billy's Restaurant, Inn, and (sometimes) Department Store.

"Oi, Kirito!" The man at the bar waved enthusiastically. "How've ya been?"

"Tired," I responded as I approached the counter, "Too much stuff going on right now..."

"I know tha feelin," Billy smiled consolingly. "Just last week Zoe... nah, never mind. You don' wanna hear about that. How 'bout some food? You look like ya could use a sandwich."

"Thanks, that would be great." I smiled back as he got to work, puttering about his little kitchen. The thing about Billy was that most of his food was terrible. Seriously, you didn't want to go there unless you knew what you were doing. But if you did know, there were those few little things that he did so incredibly well. Like the giant meat and cheese sandwich he was carrying towards me right now. My mouth was watering the moment I saw it.

"Here you are." he plopped the plate in front of me. "Funny stuff goin' on this mornin'," he commented as I proceeded to inhale the food.

"What kind of stuff?" I asked, as soon as my mouth was empty again.

"There was some strange guy goin' around. One a them folks thet keep talkin' about the end o the world."

I rolled my eyes. Blabbers, they were called, and they were honestly just a nuisance. From the first day of the SAO incident a few people had turned to religious prophesying, causing no end of trouble for the other, sane players. Fortunately most people had just ignored them, and the members of the so-called "Doomsday Cliques" gave up and decided to actually start making progress in the game after just a few weeks. I hadn't thought there were any left...

"The thing is," Billy continued, "At first no one paid 'im any attention, see. But as he kept goin' on about it, some people were actually starting to believe 'im. Said he had some kind of proof, people goin' missing, or somethin'."

"People go missing all the time, they wander out alone into difficult areas, or they're attacked by reds. What's so special about this?"

"I can't remember what it was, of the top o me head..." Billy thought for a moment, a furrow deepening in his already incredibly wrinkled brow. "It wasn't just the people... I think... he said something about places disappearing too... ah, why don't you go ask 'im yerself, I'm too old to remember this kinda stuff."

The thing was, it _was_ kind of odd... People, mobs, items, they were all variable elements within the game. They could be moved, altered, or destroyed. But everything else, the ground, the plants, the buildings, they were fixed, immutable. You couldn't chop down a tree in SAO anymore than you can float off the ground in the real world. So hearing that an entire place was gone was strange.

"Oh well, it must just be an event or something." I needed to relax today, and chasing down some story that may or may not be true is not what I generally found relaxing. "Anyways," I stood up, quickly transferred 500 col into Billy's inventory. Far too much, but I was feeling generous today. I started to make for the door, then hesitated and turned back. No point in missing a good opportunity. "If you find out anything else about it, could you let me know?"

"Sure thing boss. See you later." He smiled and waved as I walked out again into the street. It was beginning to fill with people again, evidently most of them had gotten tired of listening to whomever's nonsense. The babble of voices was relieving after the eerie silence of a few minutes ago.

Oh well. I might as well find something to keep myself busy. I was pretty sure there wasn't anything important going on today, that being why I had decided to take the day off from clearing, so after some deliberation, I decided to take a walk. Of all of the floating castle cleared so far, I'd never actually been to floor 66. While I was occupied farming for materials to reinforce some of my equipment, the clear group stormed through the dungeon so fast that by the time I was back, they were already working on the next one. Might as well go see what it was like.

As I made my way to the teleport gate, I found myself wondering about Liz. When we had gone for dinner the other night, she seemed... odd. As if she was conflicted about something. But she wasn't just acting strangely, it was more than that. It had looked as though she was mad at herself about something. What it was, I had no idea. Hopefully it wasn't something I'd done... I decided that if she was still upset the next time I saw her, then I'd ask if something was up. That's a good idea, right? Nothing wrong with helping...

* * *

It was midday by the time I arrived, but there weren't many other people around. I had heard 66 didn't have many dangerous mobs if you stayed in the open areas, and since I had no intention of doing any fighting today, it wasn't hard to find a secluded spot to myself. It was another fairly average floor, but the sloped cliffsides and meandering rivers made for a surprisingly beautiful view. That's something I'll never be able to get over: even though I know, in the back of my mind, that the world is only code running through a machine, it never fails to impress me.

I took a long hike across one of the more scenic outcroppings, and after a few hours or so stopped for a break and some food. A pair of small orange birds alighted on the ground next to me, seemingly fighting over a scrap of something. I threw them some bread, not sure if they would even be able eat it. Apparently wildlife was capable of eating regular food, as they happily accepted, the three of us casually eating together as the artificial sun drifted lazily across the sky. My thoughts wandered similarly, until settling on a certain redheaded girl who seemed to be acting more than a little unusual during our last encounter.

"I wonder what her deal is..." I glanced back at my two new friends, who had finished and were now curiously hopping closer, likely to see if I had any more gifts. I tossed them the last few crumbs of my lunch and lay back on the warm ground.

No, I wasn't stupid, I could tell what was going on in Asuna's head. No small part of me wished I didn't, that I was oblivious to her rather clumsily hidden affections. It would make life so much easier. She had become increasingly obstinate lately, and her mood seemed to be fluctuating between overly friendly and almost paranoid anxiety. There were days when she was stuck to me like glue, and others where she avoided me altogether. Anyone with half a brain could tell what she was thinking, and I was honestly surprised no one else had noticed.

"Oh well, time to head back."

I picked myself up and dusted off my jacket, not that virtual dirt could get on it anyways. As I turned to head back the way I had come, I threw one last look back, only to see that the birds had gone. Then I caught a flash of orange, and looked up, to watch the pair circle overhead before fluttering off and disappearing into the distance. How free they were, to go wherever they wanted, to do whatever they wanted, without having to worry about stupid human problems. I longed for the freedom of the open sky, wishing I could just float away from all of my troubles. Unfortunately, my feet remained firmly on the ground, denying me that wish. With a sigh, I started down the cliffside, wondering what the guild vice-leader would have in store for me tomorrow.

* * *

Well, there you go. I'm about to start exams, so I can't say when the next chapter will be up, but I can promise you it won't take as long as this one, that's for sure.

Until next time~


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